Viral shaming or (shaming, online shaming, public shaming) is a form of cyberbullying involving the public exposure and ridicule of individuals through widespread sharing in social media, typically for behavior which is seen as deviant.
Advances in technological communication have dramatically changed the ways in which social norm enforcement is used to constrain behavior. Viral shaming involves the intentional collection and dissemination of data that are potentially stigmatizing in modes that are widely accessible and in which observers (including members of the public) can often add input.
Shaming has ancient roots, with accounts in the revered writings and holy books of many societies and religions, including those of Charles Dickens and Seneca.
A common feature of online shaming is public humiliation. A challenge is to differentiate between a humbling (rightly knocking someone down a peg for a social transgression) and a humiliation that is an affront to dignity (wrongly knocking someone down a peg). In addition, the privacy concern of shamed individuals is not necessarily about intrusion on seclusion or revelation of embarrassing information, but rather about the disruption in their ability to continue to participate in online spaces free from attack.
In recent years, viral online shaming has cost companies millions, candidates elections, and individuals their careers overnight.
Viral shaming
